Stories we read this summer

More than 50 million people are displaced around the world as of the summer of 2014, the highest number since the Second World War, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Stories of people forced from their homes are stunning for their geographical breadth and, as in the Syrian civil war, the sheer number of those affected.

For some perspective: From Syria alone are 2.4 million refugees registered with the UN – roughly the size of Toronto (2.8 million). And the population of Canada, 35 million, is only equal to 70 per cent of the total number of displaced worldwide.

Here are some of the stories that we read this summer that turned these numbers into people: